Legendary Cheltenham race sponsorship axed after 52 years resulting from Rachel Reeves’ tax seize
The Coral Cup will disappear from Cheltenham Festival’s Ladies’ Day card, no longer carry the bookies’ name nor have its cash backing
Coral has ended its backing of the Coral Cup(Image: PA)
Betting bosses have scrapped their 52-year sponsorship of one of Cheltenham’s ‘most fiercely competitive’ horse races due to Rachel Reeves’ tax raid on bookmakers.
The Coral Cup – traditionally run on the festival’s Ladies’ Day – will no longer carry the bookies’ name or have its financial backing. Entain – which owns Coral and Ladbrokes – said its ‘incredibly regrettable’ decision to end the tie-up was because of the ‘significant increase’ in gambling taxes announced by the Chancellor in her November Budget.
Though duty on horseracing bets was frozen thanks to a Daily Star campaign and Britain’s first strike by owners, trainers and jockeys, Reeves still battered bookies.
She ramped up taxes on online casinos from 21% to 40% and general betting duty on sports other than horseracing from 15% to 25% from April. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is said to be plotting another cash grab by raising licence fees bookmakers pay to their Gambling Commission regulator by up to 30%.
Coral had reportedly provided a six-figure sponsorship sum for the race since 1974. Cheltenham chiefs have been left looking for a new backer.
The two mile five furlong premier handicap hurdle is run on the second day of the four-day racing festival for horses aged four and over. According to the Racing Post the contest over 10 hurdles is ‘one of the most fiercely competitive betting heats at the meeting with only one winner in the past 10 years returning a single-figure price’.
It was won last year by 16-1 shot Jimmy Du Seuil. Langer Dan is the only horse to triumph twice in 2023 and 2024. Top jockeys Davy Russell and Barry Geraghy have each won it three times while trainer Nicky Henderson’s horses boast four victories.
An Entain spokesman said the decision to pull of Cheltenham ‘follows the significant increase in betting taxation announced in the recent UK Budget which has required the business to reassess the commercial viability of certain sponsorships as part of a broader review of marketing investment’.
Entain director Simon Clare said: “The scale of the recent tax increase on betting operators means we must take difficult decisions to mitigate its impact. Ending our sponsorship after 52 years is incredibly regrettable but reflects the need to reassess where and how we invest under the new cost landscape.”
The company has forecast it will take a hit of up to £150m from Reeves’ tax rises. That was before Nandy stepped in with her planned money grab.
Gambling advertising by licensed bookmakers is declining while online advertising by illegal black market operators is soaring to the tune of up to £700m, according to new analysis commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council. Illicit sites do not pay tax and carry no safeguards to protect customers from gambling addiction.
Grainne Hurst, the Betting and Gaming Council’s chief executive officer, said: “Our members operate within some of the strictest advertising rules of any industry and continue to raise standards across the sector. By contrast illegal operators are advertising aggressively online with no safeguards, no age checks and no consumer protections, posing a huge risk to consumers.
“The Gambling Commission has linked illegal sites to organised crime and terror networks.”
Illegal operators are increasingly using unregulated digital channels, including influencers, search engines and AI-generated content to target consumers. Some impersonate trusted charities and institutions to deceive the public.
Shadow sports minister Louie French said Coral’s decision was ‘just the latest example of how Labour’s eye-watering and ideological taxes were always going to hit horse racing’.
He added: “It’s not about tackling gambling harms – it’s a cash grab that puts jobs and sports at risk. Rachel Reeves’ gambling tax raid was inevitably going to cost jobs, shut bookies and deprive British sports of vital funding.”
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: “At the Budget the Chancellor announced a package that raises revenue and forms part of our ambition to create a fair, modern and sustainable tax system. Horseracing has been protected as we recognise both its unique heritage and vital importance to rural communities.
“Horserace bets are already subject to a mandatory 10% levy and that remains the case.”
